degrees of south latitude, according to the observation made there. On the first of May a large wooden cross was erected to which was affixed the declaration of Cabral's discovery of the country for the king of Portugal. Cabral, having dispatched Gaspar de Lemos with a small vessel to Lisbon with the report of his discovery, set sail, on the third of May, for India. Cabral called the discovered country Terra de Vera Cruz (Land of the True Cross), which name was shortly afterward changed to Terra de Santa Cruz (Land of the Holy Cross), and subsequently Brazil was substituted for it."

In the year 1500 the Portuguese sailed in a different direction to seek a short route to Cathay. The Portuguese historian, Galvano refers to the expedition, saying: "In this same year 1500 it is said that Gaspar Cortereal' begged permission of King Emmanuel to discover the New Land (Terra Nova). He departed from the island Terceira with two ships equipped at his own expense, and he sailed to that region which is in the north in fifty degrees of latitude, which is a land now called after his name. He returned home in safety to the city of Lisbon. Sailing a second time on this voyage the ship was lost in which he went, and the other vessel came back to Portugal. His brother Miguel went to seek him with three ships at his own cost, and when they came to that coast, and found so many entrances of rivers and havens, each ship entered a different river, with this regulation and command, that they all three should meet again on the twentieth of August. The other

'Paesi Nouamente retrouati. lib. iii. cap. lxi-lxxxiiii. Raccolta di navigationi e viaggi. Ramusio. vol. i. fol. 132-139. Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos. Navarrete. tom. iii. pp. 94, 101.

'Gaspar Cortereal was the son of João Vaz Cortereal, who, it is said, had previously made a voyage to the Land of Bacalhão (Terra de Bacalhão).

two ships did as commanded, and they, seeing that Miguel Cortereal came not on the appointed day nor afterward in a certain time, returned to this realm and never heard any thing more concerning him. *** But that country is called Terra dos Cortereals unto this day."

Damião de Góes, the Portuguese historian, says Cortereal, called this region Terra Verde (Greenland), on account of its remarkable verdure, and the vast forests stretching all along the coast.*

Ramusio, speaking of the exploration of the coast of North America says: "In the part of the New World, which runs toward the north and northwest, opposite our habitable part of Europe, many captains have navigated, and the first (by that which one knows), was Gaspar Cortereale, a Portuguese, who, in 1500, went with two caravels intending to find some strait of the sea whence by a shorter voyage than that taken around Africa he would be able to go to the Spice Islands. He sailed so far forward that he came to a place where it was extremely cold, and he found, in the latitude of sixty degrees, a river closed with snow, to which he gave the name, calling it Rio Nevado. But he had not sufficient courage to pass much beyond it. The whole of this coast, which runs two hundred leagues from Rio Nevado as far as to the port of Malvas, in fifty-six degrees, he saw full of people and along it many dwellings."3

The earliest account of Gaspar Cortereal's voyage of 1501, from which he never returned, is contained in

'Tratado, que compos o-nobre & notauel capitão Antonio Galuão.

"Iluma terra que por ser muito fresca e de grandes aruoredos como o sao todas as que jazem pera aquella banda lhe pos nome terra verde."-Chronica do felicissimo rei Dom Emanuel. Lisboa, 1566. tomo i. fol. 65.

'Raccolta di navigationi e viaggi. Ramusio. vol. iii. fol. 346.

a letter written by Pietro Pasqualigo, the Venetian ambassador at the court of Portugal, to his brothers in Italy, dated October 19, 1501. The writer says: "On the eighth of the present month, one of the two caravels which his most serene majesty sent the past year under the command of Gaspar Corterat, arrived here, and reports the finding of a country distant west and northwest, two thousand miles, heretofore quite unknown.

They ran along the coast between six hundred and seven hundred miles without arriving at its termination, on which account they concluded it to be the same continent that is connected with another land which was discovered last year in the north, but which the caravel could not reach on account of the ice and the vast quantity of snow, and they are confirmed in this belief by the multitude of great rivers they found, which certainly could not proceed from an island. They report that this land is thickly peopled, and that the houses are built of very long beams of timber, and covered with the skins of fishes. They have brought hither along with them seven of the inhabitants, including men, women, and children; and in the other caravel, which is looked for every hour, they are bringing fifty more. These people, in color, figure, stature, and expression, greatly resemble gypsies. They are clothed with the skins of different beasts, but chiefly of the otter, wearing the hair outside in summer, and next to the skin in winter. These skins, too, are not sewed together, nor shaped to the body in any fashion, but wrapped around the arms and shoulders as they were taken from the animals. On this account their appearance is wholly barbarous; yet they are very sensible to shame, gentle in their manners, and

better made in their arms, legs, and shoulders than can be expressed. Their faces are punctured in the same manner as the Indians; some have six marks, some eight, some fewer. They use a language of their own, but it is understood by no one. Moreover, I believe that every possible language has been addressed to them. They have no iron in their country, but manufacture knives out of certain kinds of stones, with which they point their arrows.

They have also brought from this island' a piece of a broken sword inlaid with gold, which we can pronounce undoubtedly to have been made in Italy; and one of the children had in his ears two pieces (todini) of silver, which likewise appear to have been made in Venice, a circumstance inducing me to believe that their country belongs to the continent, since it is evident that if it were an island where any vessel had touched before this time we should have heard of it.'

"They have plenty of salmon, herring, cod, and other fish of the same kind. They have an abundance of timber, principally pine, fitted for masts and yards of ships, on which account his serene majesty anticipates the greatest profit from this country, both in providing timber for ships, of which he, at present, stands in great need, and from the men that inhabit it, who appear admirably fitted to endure labor, and will probably be the best slaves which have been found up to this time.

"This arrival appeared to me to be an event of which it was right to inform you; and if on the arrival of the other caravel I receive any ad

'It seems that the writer was ignorant of the fields of the discoveries of the English in 1497 and 1498. Giovanni Caboto, the Venetian navigator, no doubt had made the presents found in the possession of the inhabitants.

ditional information, it shall be transmitted to you in like manner."

Gaspar Cortereal, who was expected to return to Lisbon in the second caravel, never reached Portugal. Miguel, his brother, sailed from Lisbon in May 1502, with three ships, to search for Gaspar and the missing vessel, but he was never heard of again, and it was conjectured that both of the brothers had been slain by the savages from whom they had taken so many of their relatives to serve as slaves in Portugal.

No little enthusiasm was created at the court of Portugal by Cabral's report of the discovery of the Land of the True Cross. King Emmanuel at once ordered three vessels to be equipped to sail to the new country. Having heard of the voyages made by Amerigo Vespucci to the Land of Pearls (Terra delle Perle), he wrote to Vespucci in Seville, and solicited him to enter his service. The illness of the explorer did not then permit him to accept the tempting offer of the king of Portugal. However, when he was afterward visited by the king's ambassador, Giuliano di Bartolomeo del Giocondo, Vespucci consented to go to Lisbon and to be commissioned by King Emmanuel to accompany the fleet that was prepared to sail to Terra de Vera Cruz. His departure from Spain, he says, was a matter of regret to all who knew him, because there he was honored, and there the king had a right to claim his services. Narrating the incidents of his third voyage to the New World, Vespucci writes:

'Paesi nouamente retrouati. lib. vi. cap. cxxvi.— Vide Letter of Alberto Cantino. Archives of Modena. Cancelleria ducale. Dispacci dalla Spagna. Jean et Sébastien Cabot. Harrisse. pp. 262-264.

"Che fu tenuta a male la mia uenuta da quanti miconosceuano : perche miparti di Castiglia, doue mi era facto honore, & il re miteneua i buona possessione."